Ai Nihon 愛日本: Japanese Love Hotel

Love hotels exist for one, sole purpose: a place to make love. Uninitiated foreigners would describe these fancy hotels as strange and weird, far different from usual hotels with their bright colorful neon lights and out of ordinary front.

Getting room for privacy is difficult in Japan. Teenagers, working adults and even just married couples usually stay with their parents until they are able to afford rent in the city. Privacy is only a thin separation wall in most homes.

Space Room at the Queen Elizabeth love hotel in Chiba

Japanese love hotels are known as ラブホテル rabu hoteru. It offers room for affection and of course sex in total discretion. There are no friendly hotel staffs at reception or doorman greeting at entrance. Most love hotels checking in process is done via touch screens. Apart from standard rooms, visitors could choose bizarre themed rooms such as prisoner cell, doctor’s clinic, hospital, train cars and the list goes on. These eccentric rooms are fantasyland. The Osaka Public Jam love hotel even has a carousel room with two horse merry-go-rounds.

It is estimated that about 1.4 million couples translated to 2% of Japan’s population visit love hotel each day. Love hotels cater to almost every clientele in Japan including college kids, couples getting a break from children, politicians, prostitutes and curious tourist. Some hotels would reject male couples walk-in, although they accept female couples, for fear that they are thieves disguise as gay.

The history of love hotel is dated back during the Edo Period where inns were built to cater discreet entry. Modern love hotel is a rendition of tearooms known as chaya used by prostitutes.

Visitors can rent a room for a few hours or for a full night with rates ranging from 2,800 yen (28 USD) to 12,000 yen (120 USD). Love hotel rooms are usually equipped with condoms and an order menu for adult toys.